As my work load has greatly increased over the last few months, I've been forced to think about what my goals are and to think about whether or not starting this company was a good idea. My goal for starting this company was to eventually have a job that can provide supplemental income for my family - a job I can do from home while my kids are at school, for which I can dictate my own hours, and therefore be involved with their school. It will be many years before they are all in full time school, but I wanted to start it early to have it pretty well established for when that time comes. However, I also wanted to start it now rather than later for selfish reasons - I just love doing all of it and it makes me feel good about myself.
Sometimes people ask me how I can stay sane having this business while being a stay-at-home mom (SAHM) too, but believe it or not, the work actually KEEPS me sane...(and I pray a lot :) ). Everything I make is a work of art to me. It requires my creativity and skill, and all of my finished work feels like an accomplishment This feeling of accomplishment is something that can easily go missing with being a SAHM. We accomplish a lot of diaper changes, feeding, cleaning, life saving, etc, but it's never ending so it never feels like an accomplishment Moms provide so much for their kids - even just by being in their presence and loving on them, but the results aren't seen right away. There are no concrete finished products...children just keep growing and growing.
So, while I may not sleep as much as I used to (I have to do a lot of my work at night while the kids are asleep), I'm still going to keep going because I really just love what I do. I love seeing happy faces when customers see their finished products, I love reading positive feedback on Etsy, I love e-mails from customers telling me how happy they are with their purchases, and I love doing "the work". Most of all though, I love being able to do all of this while hanging out with these little munchkins all day.
